[opensource-dev] display names = the end of 1.x viewers?

[Bryon Ruxton]

On 8/19/10 12:09 PM, "Michael Schlenker" <schlenk at uni-oldenburg.de> wrote:

> Am 19.08.2010 um 11:51 schrieb Argent Stonecutter:
> 
>> 
>> On 2010-08-18, at 13:19, Michael Schlenker wrote:
>>>> Can you elaborate on what kind of RP would require you to be able to set
>>>> your display name to "Argent Stonecutter"
>> 
>>> Sure. Anywhere you wanna have uniform appearance, like having a bunch of
>>> 'Agent Smith' AVs in black suits to give the
>>> impression of identical twins or clones.
>> 
>> That wouldn't be "having the same display name as a user name".
>> 
>> That would be "having the same display name as another display name". I'm not
>> talking about that. Is anyone talking about that?
No one should be talking about that. Display Names checked against other
Display Names would be compromising the reasons behind the feature itself.
It should of course be allowed to choose existing Display Names.

> Its a special case of the general case, i didn't check but I'm pretty sure
> 'Agent Smith' is taken by someone. If it is and you
> had your way it would not be possible to use that name.
You have a point, although I would assume all current Last names were
carefully chosen not to imitate that of a superhero, a brand or a famous
movie character like "Agent Smith". In the context of CURRENT usernames that
is, it shouldn't be an issue or only have a very few exceptions. Futures
usernames being more open for such conflicts, with future usernames that
would want to be chosen for Role Playing as Display Names.

But not doing anything about it other that rely on Abuse Report remedies is
not ideal either. The RESI Team is there to handle such issues
appropriately. But that does not minimize the occurrence of such issue
happening in the first place, making it unpleasant for everyone and possibly
causing fraud etc.. and require additional work on our part to file the
report... which is not really fast easy and fun. ;P

As I conveyed in the blog, it could be just a warning rather than a complete
restriction. Such as: "Please be aware that this is a resident's username.
Any deceptive attempt using this resident's name is prohibited..." etc in
the case of a match. Or simply a text warning always displayed below the
Display Name box.
While it maybe only an ounce of prevention, it's worth considering as a
method of reminding people what the rules are, and that they should think
twice about abusing someone's name for deceptive tricks, as well as ease
that concern for everyone and minimize incidents (throw-away alt accounts
excluded of course, not much to do about those).
e.g. We have similar preemptive messages for detected weapon usage in PSG
sandboxes which helps educate naïve newbies about the rules before they get
ejected and/or banned, and it is helpful in minimizing griefing cases...

Or maybe just start with a log count as to how many times someone tried or
used someone else's name, against the number of abuse reports to evaluate
whether such concern is validated and supported by data or not.
And then assess the need for such warning or restriction using meaningful
data, instead of flat out accepting our early assumptions made that it will
plague us with issues...

CUSTOMER SERVICE TIPS to Lindens when you communicate:
It would have been as simple as responding in the blog, that LL will take
such concerns into consideration for further reassessment and study possible
solutions for it welcoming ideas (as I am giving here), rather than saying
that it's already been thought of with the arguments, yet giving the
sentiment that it's a final decision, which is what has been perceived.
Not by me necessarily, but by many others, which doesn't surprise me.
Carefully customer service oriented responses can save you a lot of flaming
posts... Just my 2 cents.

Cheers
Bryon

> But lets have another take at this, you want to ban people from using 'Argent
> Stonecutter' as a display name, fine.
> How about any homographs of your current SL name, should they also be banned?
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDN_homograph_attack
> 
> It opens a can of worms.
> 
> How about a display option in the viewer that can 'highlight' the fact that
> your display name is the same as your username
> (different colour, font or an other UI hint).
> That would prevent many of the imposter issues, as it would be pretty obvious.
> 
> Maybe an opt-out to deny the use of current usernames as display names would
> be appropriate, but a general ban to reuse a current username
> as a display name sounds a bit excessive.
> 
> Michael